Shipping products in densely packed containers can often damage the products. Vibration, shifting, and rubbing of the products against one another and the supporting dunnage can cause breakage, scratching, and scoring. This is a more significant concern for products having finished or ornamental surfaces. For example, many automobile parts have a decorative surface (e.g., molding and chrome strips) that must be protected during transit from the OEM supplier to the automobile manufacturer. Stacking dividers exist to separate such products during transit, but that retain acceptable density of the products during. Many of these dividers work by placing a divider at opposite walls within a box or crate and suspending the product across the dividers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,279 to Carroll is an example. The '279 patent discloses a one-piece stacking divider tray that protects automotive trim moldings from marring during transit. Each tray includes a plurality of bunkers separated by posts. Each piece of molding fits between two posts with its non-decorative surface resting on a bunker. The posts separate the molding strips and prevent contact between the molding strips. Additionally, the trays disclosed in the '279 patent stack on one another to increase packing density.
However, the trays of the '279 patent lose efficiency when supporting symmetrical, non-linear products. For example, automobile wiper arms are generally complex shapes best modeled as rods having a series of bends, both vertical and horizontal. Using the trays of the '279 patent to accommodate the non-linear shape of the wiper arm would decrease the packing density of wiper arms as more room, either vertical or horizontal, or both, must be given each wiper arm to account for its bends. Also, a wiper arm is normally a metal or metal and plastic construction that is completely painted and susceptible at all points to marring, scratching, and chipping. This is unlike the molding discussed in the '279 patent which has a non-decorative face that can contact dunnage without affecting the usefulness of the molding. Accordingly, all significant contact between the dunnage supports and wiper arms must be eliminated to prevent unacceptable marring, scratching, and chipping during transit.
Dunnage capable of (i) supporting non-linear, symmetrical products in a high-density packing configuration, (ii) preventing contact between the densely packed product during shipping and (iii) retaining the product at a minimum of contact with the dunnage would be desirable.